According to the Boston University Athletic Department’s master schedule, the women’s basketball team played a home game against the University of New Hampshire on Saturday afternoon.
Those in attendance at Case Gymnasium might have thought that the proceedings more closely resembled pre-school nap time than they did a Division I college basketball game.
Instead of taking advantage of their superior speed and athleticism, the Terriers were lulled into a game of jacking up hurried three-pointers late in the shot clock, giving up crucial offensive rebounds and missing layups. And by the time the Terriers woke up from their slumber, New Hampshire had slipped away with a 56-49 victory.
The Terriers (13-9, 6-5 America East) were crushed on the boards to the tune of 53-35, held to 29 percent (18-of-62) shooting from the field. The team committed 17 turnovers and attempted only eight free throws. Yet, after a three-point play by freshman forward Larissa Parr with 5:27 remaining, the Terriers had a 49-48 lead and were poised to steal a game in which they had been soundly outplayed.
But the final five minutes saw the Terriers commit three turnovers and miss all nine of their shots, three of which were layups or putbacks from in close. And it all added up to a very bad loss to a mediocre New Hampshire team, a loss which may come back to haunt the Terriers in terms of seeding for next month’s America East Tournament.
“We had nothing going all day long,” BU coach Margaret McKeon said. “This game was boring. And that’s what [New Hampshire] wants you to do. They want to play half-court, slow it down, pack-it-in, and that’s not the way we play.”
Even when the Terriers managed to do something good or have a break go their way, they found a way to squander the opportunity. Despite opening the game 3-of-13 from the field, the Terriers were within 29-27 after Parr hit a jumpshot with 13 seconds remaining in the first half. But with a chance for the Terriers to at least save a little face going into halftime, sophomore Marisa Mosley inexplicably fouled New Hampshire’s Anna Mathias as she hit a layup with 1.7 seconds left. Mathias completed the three-point play to send the Terriers into the break in a 32-27 hole.
In addition, the Terriers failed to capitalize on New Hampshire’s woeful 7-of-14 second half performance from the charity stripe. Four different times in the half, New Hampshire got offensive rebounds after missed free throws.
“Today, our team was real flat,” McKeon said. “We started to do a better job inside in the second half of at least contesting their three-point shots, but they got offensive rebounds. Or if they got a foul shot, they got an offensive rebound, so they get a new shot clock.”
As if things weren’t going bad enough for the Terriers, Parr, who scored nine of her 14 points in the first half, picked up her second, third and fourth fouls in the first 5:30 of the second half, forcing her to ride the pine for the next eight minutes. On top of that, Katie Terhune, the America East’s leading scorer at 18.8 points per game, went 1-for-9 with only three points after going 4-for-8 with 11 points in the first 20 minutes. The Terriers shot only 7-of-25 from downtown and missed six layups in the contest. Yet the Terriers somehow were able to stay within striking distance the entire second half, taking the one-point lead with 5:27 left.
“As bad as we played, we still had a chance to win,” McKeon said. “That’s a scary thing for a coach.”
But when the Terriers finally got the lead, they quickly gave it away. Only 13 seconds after Parr’s go-ahead jumpshot, Maren Matthia drove to the basket for a layup that gave New Hampshire the lead for good.
The score remained 50-49 for the next three minutes, during which time the Terriers missed a layup, a pair of three-pointers by Terhune and Alison Argentieri and a jumpshot by Adrienne Norris. New Hampshire finally put the game away when Heidi Plence hit a three-pointer, then caught a pass from Kiki Proctor (who had stripped the ball from Terhune) and finished the fast break layup to give New Hampshire a 55-49 lead with 2:03 left.
The Terriers didn’t score again and now likely have to win each of their remaining five regular season games (four of them on the road) in order to fulfill their pre-season goal of finishing the regular season in the top four of the America East.
“Every game at this point of our season is extremely important,” McKeon said. “For us [to finish in the top four], we have to win out. We can’t have any slip-ups.”
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